It’s been a long time since I haven’t been online for almost a week. It must have been at some point in 1999, I suppose. So, at first, it felt a bit strange not being able to read my email or drop a note in this blog. But then I realized that it’s probably a good thing to renounce to the comforts of cyberspace every now and then. If only to see if it is still possible. And I think it’s reassuring that it is.

So, having to catch up with a lot of things, I will write more later, but I just have to comment some questions I received by email from Roman reader Marcus Tullius Cicero, in case his questions should be common ones –

Q: “Is that really your picture?”

If you are referring to the picture in the upper left hand corner of the page, the reply is probably “yes”. But no one knows what a browser does to your looks ;-).

Q: “Is that a gun nestled in your left armpit?”

Well, I guess some people are indeed able to turn a pen into a weapon as or even more powerful than a gun. But I am not sure if such a compliment is the correct interpretation. So I am slightly disturbed by this question. I am German, after all, not American. See “Bowling for Columbine” for further reference.

Q: “Why don’t you allow comments on your site?”

Good question. The answer is that this site was originally designed to communicate with some friends. So the guestbook was easily sufficient to provide room for non-email based communication. And still, only a tiny fraction of visitors leave comments in the guestbook [ thank you ! ] But I will look into installing a commenting system.

The more discussion the better.